Trevor Gibbons - Professional Website

Software development has always been a passion of mine, I enjoy the challenges it brings and quality of solutions that can be developed with it. Steve Jobs said "a computer is.. The equivalent to a bicycle for our minds". And then software determines not only what type of bike we ride, but where we can travel. I use software to help create better 'bicycles' and roads for them to travel on.

"I think one of the things that really separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool builders. I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list. It was not too proud a showing for the crown of creation. So, that didn’t look so good. But, then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And, a man on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts.
And that’s what a computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” ~ Steve Jobs

Beyond Reality was a Virtual Reality software development company that was focused on selling real estate, specifically high density residential real estate (think condominiums). As the architect and developer for this company I created environment's where potential home buyers could envision themselves living there. This was paramount in condo sales, because many, if not all units are sold prior to the construction of the actual building.

• A-symmetrical UI design. There was no experience necessary to navigate the units, all aspects of the experience could be controlled by the sale person from outside of VR.
• Changing of color palates to showcase the various designs available. To highlight this complete furniture swaps were also available to help make a young couple feel as at home as a bachelor. In a traditional show suite this is not possible.
• Mini-games. Like archery, pool, or just fun things to do in the experience. This helps the people in the experience have fun and help increase buying temperature.
• Take pictures of their experience and even selfies. This was used so people could post their experiences directly to social media and share the fun (and the word about the unit).
• See the view. By incorporating high quality images of the actual building location that real views from the potential buyers could be seen. Almost like they already there.
• Accurate layout and sizing so they get a real feel for how the place 'feels'.

All of these things helped buyers to make better decision and sellers to make a stronger case for why their property was the right choice.

Business software custom pipelines. As much high end software there is out there, SAP, Primavera, EcoSys, XXX, etc. does not distract from the fact that the business world is still run off of Excel. And while the perfect software solution is being developed, implemented, de-bugged, or trained for, business is still needed to be conducted. I have found much success in the development of small script solutions, either VBA and PowerShell, that allow for the reduction of manual data manipulation or the automation of repetitive tasks. Although I do attempt to detract from what large software can do for a business, I do realize that implementation can take longer than expected and does not always achieve what is needed. In some cases this can be years.

On the other hand the custom solutions, that usually only work for one or two specific use cases can be quickly designed and implemented, often earning value immediately by shaving hours of common tasks or helping in getting better data to decision makers. These solutions do not last forever but more then pay themselves while in use, even it is only a year or two (which I find is often the case).

• Custom project cost build-up sheet where the true payable costs can be compared to expected revenue on contracts that involve Lump Sum or Unit Rate payment conditions.
• Release trackers that allow for other craft or disciplines to proceed with their work as soon another team is completed. This takes the manual work out of searching for what is completed by one team to pass to another team.
• Database that incorporates quality control, progress, and billing into one centralized location. (In development).

Again, there are fully developed solutions for all these problems, but real business facing issues when going to implement them.

• Cannot afford (either licenses or training time) to implement.
• Already have something similar, but does not complete exactly what is needed (or it does, but they do not use that way).
• Already have "too many programs" and just need this one (or more) thing answered in Excel.
• Not large enough to bring 'the heavy guns' that some software solutions are.

The list goes on and on, the end result is that many businesses need solutions today! And often there are small nibble pieces of software can be created to fulfill such needs.

This website was designed and developed by me. I hope you are enjoying it.